2. PG/SG Jordan Clarkson – Philippines
The Utah Jazz are going to see a lot of what Jordan Clarkson can do as the focal point of a team in a major competition, as he was given the reigns for Team Philippines. Due to international rules, however, the Philippines had to give up a major player to get Clarkson, one who outperformed him.
Justin Brownlee had a better outing with the Philippine national team in the two games in the World Cup Asia Quafliers, but despite averaging more points (29 to 25), rebounds (8 to 4), field goal and three-point percentages, and a higher efficiency rating, the national team went with Clarkson over Brownlee.
Due to neither being citizens of the country, they could only compete for them if they were naturalized players in the eyes of FIBA, and FIBA only allows one naturalized player per team. Brownlee isn’t technically gone, he’s still a member of the 18-man squad, but he’ll likely play in the Hangzhou Asian Games instead while representing the Philippines.
Should Clarkson go down with an injury and have to be removed from the official 12-man roster, it’s likely that they’ll be able to bring back Brownlee. So now it’s on Clarkson’s shoulders to do better than Brownlee going forward and lead this team to a respectable outcome. If not, they may wonder why they went with Clarkson at all.